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Hidden History’s Brian Bullock discovers the history of Virginia’s trolley transportation

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Brian Bullock visits spots around Richmond learning about rail transportation and the groundbreaking technology that has its roots in Richmond, Virginia.

Richmond has a rich rail transportation history. In this episode of Hidden History, Brian Bullock visits the Richmond Railroad Museum to learn about some of that history, but not before meeting with Melissa Sleeth of RVA on Wheels.

“Richmond's trolley system is really very interesting. It started in February of 1888 by Julian Sprague and all of these cities tried so hard to get a trolley system --- a rail trolley system --- to figure out how to put the wires up top. But somehow Richmond figured it out, even with all the hills. All you need are two 7.5 horsepower engines, and you can run a trolley. And so, we were the first successful trolley system in the world.”

Richmond’s trolley system peaked at a total of 84 miles of track around the city until the advent of newer innovations came along. Just as the trolley had put a damper on animal-drawn transportation, in 1949, General Motors created the car. The success of both the car and the railroad system made it so the trolley system would have to be scrapped in June of 1949. If you make your way down the cobblestone streets in Shockoe Bottom, you can still find pieces of the trolley track reminding us of an important part of Richmond’s transportation history.
 

After his visit with Melissa, Brian headed to the Richmond Railroad Museum where he met with curator George Saunders. The museum was originally a depot on the southern railway where half the building was meant for passengers and the other half was meant for freight. George also talked about the impact that the electric trolley system had on the railroad.

“Now Richmond's not flat, it's all on hills. So, what they had to do was use draft animals and wagons to go down to one railroad, load up the freight off of that freight train, bring it back up the hill, and load it to another one. Well, here we're working with animals. Sometimes they do what you tell 'em, sometimes they don't. Working with animals is not always easy. It's very, very expensive. Takes an enormous amount of time. And just to hitch up one horse, if you know what you're doing, it takes 20 minutes. Horses had to be fed. Give 'em water several times a day. Give 'em a rest and all that. And horses can only pull so much. For how much you're moving, the people and the freight, it was very, very expensive. When they went to the electric, it was a lot cheaper in the long run. It also was a much smoother ride when they had the wagons and all that, the roads in Richmond were not smooth at all. They were very rough. But riding steel wheels and steel rails was much smoother and a better ride.”
 

In 1888, the first trolley system was launched in Richmond. Other places came to check it out and they liked it so much that within two years, 113 cities had put in their own trolley systems. The trolley system had a global impact, almost anything that went on railroading of any type was copied from something else, so the trolley system plays an important role in that evolution. The cities of Boston and New York both copied the trolley system we established in Richmond for their own systems, and it is said that they then used those same mechanisms to create their subway systems.

 
You can learn more about Julian Sprague and his invention of the electric trolley system in the latest episode of “Hidden History with Brian Bullock” on the new VPM History YouTube Channel. You can also check out the Hidden History website to catch up on past episodes. Stay tuned for more "Hidden History!"